tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9860839270584900142018-03-07T09:57:15.806-08:00Under Darkening SkiesThe night is darkening round me,
<br>The wild winds coldly blow;
<br>But a tyrant spell has bound me
<br>And I cannot, cannot go.
<br><br>
--Emily BronteJacob L Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08619200814391126038noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-986083927058490014.post-3606297257166076972014-07-21T00:29:00.000-07:002014-07-21T00:30:30.593-07:00What is worse than enslaving someone?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Well, in some places that would be blocking the door of the metro. As I have been here in South Asia, I have gained a greater understanding of just how far away justice can be for some people. <br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h_DQyxkfeN8/U8lf1Xh3-kI/AAAAAAAAAVM/tfY8XENnw-M/s1600/Metro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h_DQyxkfeN8/U8lf1Xh3-kI/AAAAAAAAAVM/tfY8XENnw-M/s1600/Metro.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The fine is more than twice.</td></tr></tbody></table>How bad can it be? Well, the answer lies not just in the plight of the persons in bondage, but in the institutional response (or lack of response) to it, the evaluation of criminal actions. A most telling (and motivational) moment for me has been this sign (at right) on the Delhi Metro. It warns the potential criminal punishment for obstructing the door of the metro train, including up to four years imprisonment.<br /><br />On the other hand, India's law outlawing bonded labor, coercive exploitation of laborers due to debt or cultural obligation, states the criminal exploiter “shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and also with fine.” Three years. That is the maximum punishment. Because the fate of some travelers on public transportation who might be held up matters more than the freedom of individuals like <a href="http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/odishas-vicious-migration-cycle-do-you-want-to-part-with-your-leg-or-hand-/1210348/0" target="_blank">these, who had their hands brutally amputated for refusing to work in bondage</a>.<br /><div style="text-align: left;"></div><br />I have been struck in the past by the fact that the taking of someone's liberty, particularly for the purpose of economic gain and exploitation, is one of the few capital crimes listed in the law given by God to His people (see Exodus 21:16, Deuteronomy 24:7) It provides insight into the value God places on the freedom for the persons he has created, and the seriousness with which he views the sin of violating that freedom. Rejection of this God and His law by a culture completely reverses the valuation of life and liberty to where justice becomes injustice; justice becomes almost impossible. <br /><br />This is why the work of organizations like International Justice Mission is so important. And why the Gospel of Christ, which includes the only proper foundation of Justice (His word) must be taken into every area of life and the globe. As God’s people, we are called to do just that. As I get to work with IJM for the next 10 months, and learn more about the gravity of the evil being faced and the work being done, I continue to thank God for the prayer and support of so many. If you would like to support my work here, you can designate a donation for me through IJM’s support page found <a href="http://www.ijm.org/content/support-internship-or-fellowship" target="_blank">here</a>. Follow the link and choose my name from the drop down menu. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. </div><div style="text-align: center;">- Isaiah 1:16-17</div></div>Jacob L Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08619200814391126038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-986083927058490014.post-47118671891222836552014-06-28T06:41:00.000-07:002014-06-28T06:41:03.479-07:00Learning as We Go<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div>Having spent a week now in South Asia, I have noticed a few things and maybe even learned a few other things.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://news.oneindia.in/img/2014/06/13-auto-rickshaw-601.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="http://news.oneindia.in/img/2014/06/13-auto-rickshaw-601.jpg" border="0" class="decoded" height="240" src="http://news.oneindia.in/img/2014/06/13-auto-rickshaw-601.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Someone really needs to turn down the temperature over here.</li><li>Traffic, both vehicle and human, does not follow the traditional western rules, but that doesn't make it chaotic. It allows for constant negotiation between everyone sharing the roadways for a more efficient use of the limited space.</li><li>Riding in auto rickshaws is a fun experience, but the drivers need to learn to use the meter as intended.</li><li>The most fun mode of transport is walking. That's when I get to be part of the negotiations. I'd do it more if not for number 1.</li><li>The monsoon rains make traffic very interesting.</li><li>I miss seeing people smile more often. Thankfully, my colleagues make up for the general populace.</li><li>Shopping is not so bad once you actually are able to find your objective.</li><li>Riding the metro is the best form of vehicle travel. It's safe, reliable, and consistent; no haggling necessary. It really does amuse me how much people will press toward the doors of train without necessity as if they need to get off quickly, but how slowly they actually walk.</li><li>Lines are optional.</li><li>I love the challenge of finding my way around a completely new place and of remaining aware of my surroundings.</li><li>Much heat is very tiring.</li><li>There are too many different kinds of curry, and most of them aren't really that good.</li><li>Apparently, spices go in everything, including our drinks. Like, why can't we just have some things plain? Not everything needs all the flavors.</li><li>I never expected myself to like the taste of air fresheners. But I&nbsp; never expected my dessert to taste like one either. </li><li>Some Indian food is really good. And roti with everything is the way to go.</li><li>I never thought I'd actually look forward to taking cold showers.</li><li>Truly realizing that every person you see is an image-bearer of God is a lot different when you are traveling.</li></ol></div>Jacob L Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08619200814391126038noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-986083927058490014.post-78628755634048373182014-06-03T08:04:00.001-07:002014-06-05T08:30:14.472-07:00Orientation Day 1:Monday of Orientation at IJM may well end up being my favorite. At least at this point the others will have a lot to live up to.&nbsp;<div><br></div><div><div>On Monday we heard from IJM founder and president, Gary Haugen about the spiritual foundations of IJM. In my view it was more if a glimpse of the organizations heart. That heart is reflected in IJM's vision and mode of conduct. It is a spiritual heart directed toward the glory of God and the spreading of the Gospel.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>In this IJM relies on the Word of God first and last to receive its mission. Most beautiful is the commitment to prayer on an individual and corporate level to infuse every workday with the knowledge of the end of worship of our Creator and King.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>It was awesome to see how this builds the vision around the core mission of IJM which is to protect the world's poor from everyday violence and injustice. The commitment to focus on that one thing while being open to addressing the immortal soul and partnering with others who can carry other aspects of the Gospel alongside this important work.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>And as Gary reminded us, God cares just as much about how we do as what we do. And this is why IJM is committed to Christian and professional excellence in the manner as well as the goals.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-zB-hUxHalNg/U43j3VgtLCI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/ERZnu2u6_h8/s640/blogger-image--200354158.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-zB-hUxHalNg/U43j3VgtLCI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/ERZnu2u6_h8/s640/blogger-image--200354158.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Additionally, I appreciated IJM's commitment to the spiritual growth of its own staff on the same level as those helped.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Needless to say, I have never felt the passion for IJM's work stronger than I have today. I see God removing able fears and reservations about his call to this internship. If you are inspired as well, you can be a part of IJM's important work. Please prayerfully consider sponsoring my work with IJM by following the "Give" link at www.ijm.org and choosing my name from the dropdown menu of interns on the donation page.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div></div><div>Some other interesting notes on the day. I visited the headquarters of the influential and somewhat infamous Council on Foreign Relations.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zC-IG3VUwRw/U43j4t9faYI/AAAAAAAAAUY/07JYBu6Bp0I/s640/blogger-image--852477700.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zC-IG3VUwRw/U43j4t9faYI/AAAAAAAAAUY/07JYBu6Bp0I/s640/blogger-image--852477700.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I also used my knowledge of DC's event processes to secure a spot at the Mediterranean Leadership Award Gala Reception where Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma was supposed to be presented with an award. The senator never showed up but I fulfilled my real mission by filling up on the free food. :)&nbsp;</div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-k04O-MLW5r4/U43j6CbIqUI/AAAAAAAAAUg/E8UCDScNHa0/s640/blogger-image--883846014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-k04O-MLW5r4/U43j6CbIqUI/AAAAAAAAAUg/E8UCDScNHa0/s640/blogger-image--883846014.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ohguETCf7rA/U43j2NQrvtI/AAAAAAAAAUI/mQLfXipvwnc/s640/blogger-image-1996488736.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ohguETCf7rA/U43j2NQrvtI/AAAAAAAAAUI/mQLfXipvwnc/s640/blogger-image-1996488736.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Here's to what God brings next.&nbsp;</div><br></div><br></div>Jacob L Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08619200814391126038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-986083927058490014.post-75732393309923421922014-06-01T15:31:00.002-07:002014-06-01T15:31:49.352-07:00Internship Update: Getting Oriented in DC<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Back in January I let you all know about my exciting internship opportunity in South Asia to work with International Justice Mission and their communications team in combatting modern slavery. Time has flown by since then. Many of you supported and are supporting my work with your money and prayers for which I am continually grateful. I hope to continue to connect with you all and share various aspects of my work on this blog.&nbsp;</span></span><br /><div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">The first step to beginning my internship is spending a week of orientation with IJM staff and interns in Washington DC. I will be here in DC for the next week and will try to provide updates as the week progresses.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-qNb8WwJ4Qho/U4rTaK_exxI/AAAAAAAAATg/eOQG53agLJ8/s640/blogger-image-762490232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="299" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-qNb8WwJ4Qho/U4rTaK_exxI/AAAAAAAAATg/eOQG53agLJ8/s400/blogger-image-762490232.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My view of Dulles Airport as I wrote this post at 3 AM.</span></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Here I will learn much more about IJM's mission and processes as well as to make personal connections with those who will be joining me in the fight for justice and spreading the gospel of freedom around the world.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">"I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." </span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">- Amos 5:21-24</span></div></div>Jacob L Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08619200814391126038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-986083927058490014.post-63448021359149525622014-02-17T08:08:00.000-08:002014-02-17T08:08:27.284-08:00When Your Government Doesn't Care - Special Post<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;">This week I was given the opportunity to publish an article in the Hillsdale Collegian, my school's weekly student newspaper.</span></span> It deals with pointing out important hypocrisies in the claims and actions of government leaders. I was very appreciative of the opportunity the Collegian gave me to talk about what I see as an important and overlooked issue. I thought you all might be interested in it as well.<br /><br />You can see the whole newspaper on <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/206950665/2-13-Hillsdale-Collegian">Scribd</a>, may article is on page 5. Otherwise you can read my article here.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hidzDVSguoo/Uv_uPaqXDfI/AAAAAAAAASA/00OByVJX8ek/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-02-15+at+5.23.37+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hidzDVSguoo/Uv_uPaqXDfI/AAAAAAAAASA/00OByVJX8ek/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-02-15+at+5.23.37+PM.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>Jacob L Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08619200814391126038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-986083927058490014.post-75370010938314736732014-01-15T16:00:00.000-08:002014-01-15T16:16:34.150-08:00Life Update: My Exciting Internship Opportunity<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">- Micah 6:8</div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><br />As many of you probably already know, I like to talk about justice on this blog. Thus, it will be soon be apparent why I am very excited to give this update on my life and where God is taking me. I will graduate from Hillsdale College in May with B.A. in Politics and Philosophy. I have greatly enjoyed my time at Hillsdale and grown personally, academically, professionally, and spiritually from it. In the not too distant future, I plan to pursue graduate studies in international relations. <br /><br />My interests have directed me seek out and achieve an internship position with the International Justice Mission for work that will take me to South Asia for 10-12 months beginning this summer. This wonderful opportunity will allow me to grow professionally while enabling the continued work of a strong organization committed to the promotion of justice throughout the world. <br /><br />The International Justice Mission is a human rights organization initiating change to meet the needs of many living under oppression of various forms. Now in its sixteenth year, IJM has developed a highly successful model, working directly with law enforcement to bring justice for both the offenders and victims of sexual trafficking, forced labor slavery, illegal detention, illegal property seizure, citizenship issues, and sexual violence which pervade many countries around the world. IJM also works with policy makers to influence long-term development of broader and deeper commitment to justice. I invite you to browse the IJM website at <a href="http://ijm.org/our-work/what-we-do">http://ijm.org/our-work/what-we-do</a>. <br /><br />The better understanding and promotion of justice has long been the primary motivation in my life. I take seriously God’s calling on my life to use the skills he has given me to promote justice in every way possible. I have chosen to study philosophy and politics in order to dig deeper into foundations of justice and how to prudently implement it. <br /><br />I am very excited by the opportunity to spend to work with IJM in Asia. I will be able to focus my work particularly on bonded slavery issues. Slavery continues to be a major problem in the modern world. Many poor persons are denied basic rights forced into unchanging state of servitude through debt and violence. <br /><br />I will use my research and writing skills to study the policies and create content to facilitate IJM’s work towards sustained changes. Thousands have already been freed, but many more need justice. At the same time, the cultural experience will prepare me for a future in international relations and the further study of ethical issues. <br /><br />This wonderful opportunity to learn and grow requires my providing for my living expenses and travel for my yearlong mission. Thus, I am pleased to present you with the opportunity to support me and IJM in this powerful work. I have a fundraising goal of $20,000 for my time in Asia. <br /><br />I am thankful for the investment you have made in my life directly or indirectly over the years. I would gratefully appreciate the opportunity to communicate with you about my internship. You can contact me at <a href="mailto:jj4bsu@gmail.com">jj4bsu@gmail.com</a> and continue to follow this blog for updates. I would be very thankful for your continued prayers and support. And if you would have the desire to support me (and IJM) financially in this endeavor, I would be grateful. No amount is too small and all donations to IJM are tax-deductible. <br /><br />If you want to give right now, you can do so easily and securely with a credit or debit card. Link here: <a href="http://www.ijm.org/getinvolved/internshipsupport">http://www.ijm.org/getinvolved/internshipsupport</a> and follow the “Support an Intern/Fellow” link on that page and be sure to choose my name from the intern dropdown menu. <br /><br />If you would like to give another way or ask questions, email me: jj4bsu@gmail.com. <br /><br />Thank you for your prayers and support. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />*Bonus Read* Follow this link to see the work IJM has already been doing on the slavery issue. <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/273-bonded-labourers-rescued-in-tiruvallur/article4804623.ece">http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/273-bonded-labourers-rescued-in-tiruvallur/article4804623.ece</a>&nbsp;</span></span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: X-NONE; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"></span><br /><div style="text-align: left;"></div>Jacob L Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08619200814391126038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-986083927058490014.post-37041833417407300452013-12-05T16:15:00.000-08:002013-12-05T17:31:36.360-08:00Reviewing the Shutdown: Losing PrudencePoliticians continue to speak of prudence in political discourse, but the recent government shutdown highlights a lack of actual prudence in present policy debates.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--hfZH0h2n18/UqEo4fE0KSI/AAAAAAAAAQs/xYCWfSe2SHU/s1600/uscapitol.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="137" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--hfZH0h2n18/UqEo4fE0KSI/AAAAAAAAAQs/xYCWfSe2SHU/s200/uscapitol.jpg" width="200" /></a>Classically, prudence is practical wisdom, the virtue of politics. Prudence unites the intellectual and moral virtues, the realms of ideas and actions. Prudence unites the best means to proper ends. As practical wisdom, prudence understands the limitations of action. Thus, in uniting ends to means, prudence always necessitates practicability, the best possible means for the best possible ends.<br /><br />U.S. political history provides vivid definition to prudence in action. While maintaining the right to political revolution against tyranny, the Declaration of Independence cautions, “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes…” The implications follow neatly. The people can properly engage in political revolution responding to tyrannical government; altering a tyrannical government is a worthy goal. The caution though entails that proper means can be matched to a good end and still be imprudent. Prudence looks at the whole picture, practicability and necessity of the particular means for achieving the goal.<br /><br />The recent government shutdown reinforces the Declaration’s maxim: proper means and good ends are not enough. Prudence dictates the best possible means for the best possible ends. Forgetting this important lesson, the GOP harmed its own cause and weakened the possibility of achieving the proposed end.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />The GOP recommended the ending or defunding of Obamacare for good reason. At present, most evidence points to horrific effects of this law on the personal and economic lives of million of Americans. The federal government, for the first time, compels Americans to buy a specific product, violating market principles and freedom of choice.[1] Despite President Obama’s promise, thousands of Americans lost their previous insurance plans[2] and may lose their doctors.[3] Surveys suggest businesses have cut full-time jobs to avoid or allay the new costs of mandated insurance coverage.[4] This incomplete list demonstrates the wisdom of replacing Obamacare.<br /><br />The GOP also had a valid means for initiating policy changes in allowing the government shutdown. A government shutdown is a unique, powerful tool for a minority party in a divided government. The risk of shutdown enables the minority to gain bargaining power with the ruling party and seek a compromise for the general good. Shutdown is a drastic measure but not always an improper one. The spending policy of the majority creates the context for shutdown. Thus, the majority has no grounds for criticizing the tool it has placed in the hands of the minority.<br /><br />Nevertheless, prudence, indeed, will dictate the simple collusion of a good end and a valid means do not always make for the right action.<br /><br />The GOP acted imprudently improperly assessing the practical effects of the shutdown. American history demonstrates clearly the minority party takes the greater share of the public blame for a shutdown, as the GOP did.[5] Shutdowns generate bad publicity because closed parts of the government are often most visible.[6] Lastly, the shutdown could not even end or defund Obamacare. The best possible compromise would only delay the individual mandate, as no Democrats had shown willingness to consider more.[7]<br /><br />Also, the GOP did not prudently account for the timing. Americans have consistently opposed the Obamacare law, even before its implementation.[8] Just as the Congress shut down the government, Obamacare actually hit the American people for the first time. To win the American people and viably act as the people’s recognized guardian, the GOP should not have distracted from America’s first real experience with Obamacare with a meaningless shutdown. The Obamacare rollout has been nothing but pain and headaches for the providers and the American people.[9] Prudence requires foresight.<br /><br />The disastrous rollout would have given the Republicans high ground for demanding positive change. Instead, the GOP myopically abetted a shutdown and sabotaged its own credibility with Americans. Americans simply grow unhappier with the whole system rather than looking to the GOP for leadership. Prudence demands the fight against Obamacare be saved for another day when the likelihood of success would be better and the backlash not so great. Attentive foresight to the practicability and timing of the move would have made this clear to the GOP.<br /><br /><br />References:<br />1. NFIB, “Individual Mandate of the Healthcare Law -- an NFIB Research CribSheet,” accessed December 2, 2013, http://www.nfib.com/research-foundation/cribsheets/individual-mandate.<br /><br />2. Glenn Kessler, “Obama’s pledge that ‘no one will take away’ your health plan,” <i>The Fact Checker</i> blog at <i>The Washington Post</i>, October 30, 2013, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2013/10/30/obamas-pledge-that-no-one-will-take-away-your-health-plan. <br /><br />3. Seung Min Kim and Jennifer Haberkorn, “New Obamacare weapon for GOP: Doctors,” <i>Politico</i>, December 3, 2013, http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/doctors-the-new-gop-weapon-in-obamacare-fight-100617.html?hp=t1_3,<br /><br />4. Mark Trumbull, “Businesses cut full-time workers to meet Obamacare mandate, study says,” <i>The Christian Science Monitor</i>, November 13, 2013, http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2013/1113/Businesses-cut-full-time-workers-to-meet-Obamacare-mandate-study-says-video.<br /><br />5. Scott Clement, “Republicans are losing the shutdown blame game,” <i>The Fix</i> blog at <i>The Washington Post</i>, October 4, 2013, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/10/04/republicans-are-losing-the-shutdown-blame-game.<br /><br />6. Evan Halper and Richard Simon, “A government shutdown would affect public quickly, widely,” <i>The Los Angeles Times</i>, September 27, 2013, http://articles.latimes.com/2013/sep/27/nation/la-na-shutdown-furlough-20130928.<br /><br />7. Sam Stein, “House GOP's Third Shutdown Offer Would Delay Individual Mandate By One Year,” <i>The Huffington Post</i>, September 30, 2013, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/30/house-gop-shutdown-2013_n_4018547.html.<br /><br />8. “Public Approval of Health Care Law,” <i>Real Clear Politics</i>, last modified November 27, 2013, http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/obama_and_democrats_health_care_plan-1130.html.<br /><br />9. Aaron Carroll, “Obamacare a disaster that needs fixing,” <i>CNN</i>, October 22, 2013, http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/21/opinion/carroll-obamacare-rollout-mess.Jacob L Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08619200814391126038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-986083927058490014.post-43029897127004590962013-10-17T16:56:00.000-07:002013-10-17T17:12:48.372-07:00Prison: Enemy of Justice<span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Modern society has a problem. The problem goes to the very core of society, the preservation and promotion of justice. At the center of this problem lies a prison system called to be a promoter of justice, but can only be its destroyer.<br />Society exists because it provides for the best possible life for individuals within it. Individuals join society, societies coalesce, or societies exist naturally because they provide a place for each individual. They enable the relationships and discourse, and opportunities that make for a fully human life.<br />&nbsp;</span><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ESjqcbE7i4k/UmB3xKInulI/AAAAAAAAAP4/No36n54a1S8/s1600/prison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ESjqcbE7i4k/UmB3xKInulI/AAAAAAAAAP4/No36n54a1S8/s200/prison.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Society emerges from relations. The organic or mechanical relations between individuals, groups, and institutions constitute a society. The relations of society and the contributions of each member to the society create rules of engagement for the society. Call it the social order. Order has more than its authoritarian meaning. It has biological meaning. An order naturally collects of smaller units (families) in the animal kingdom in natural, meaningful relationship.<br />&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Birthed in the relational nature of society, social order in turn creates authority. Social relation necessarily gives proper authority to the elements involved in the relation. Social order comprises the rules that govern behavior within society for each individual to live a fulfilled life. The proper social order best directs each individual to the best life, a fully human life in the society. Each elemental part of society has the duty to support the social order and the basic authority to defend it. Various elements, individuals and institutions, have various authority proper to themselves determined by the social order.</span><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Laws enact various parts of the social order by the force of the state, a powerful element in society. Law declares which parts of the social order should be upheld and sanctioned by the authority proper to the state acting on behalf of the whole society. Obviously, not every part of the social order properly belongs to state enforcement. The state will not punish you for lying to your cousin, but it will sanction you for defrauding him in a business contract.<br />Crime is the breaking of law. In the broadest sense, this includes all law, private and public. That crimes harm victims directly and break the law is easily recognizable. More fundamentally though, crime, the breaking of law, represents a breach in society. The lawbreaker breaches social order by harming others in the social order and by implicitly claiming to be outside of the society. The criminal states implicitly that social order does not bind his action.<br />&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">The law provides for sanctions to fix the social breach. The sanctions repair social order by including the following elements: providing justice, or restitution, to the victim, punishing the criminal to prevent further crime, and returning the criminal to proper relation society. The state, through law and power, has the authority to enact justice and punishment, but community, the relational side of social order, perfects justice, restoring each member to society. Community enables the forgiveness and restoration that completes the justice enacted by state sanctions.<br />&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Society is more than the state, and social order is more than its laws. Community brings together the whole of society’s powerful constitutional relationships. Community engenders the feelings proper to smaller, organic institutions in society. Just as families naturally tolerate and forgive, community brings this characteristic society as a whole to heal societal breaches.<br />&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Prisons fail because they do not fulfill any of the elements of proper sanction. Prisons may punish but not in a way that deters criminal activity in the future. Prisons do not provide justice and restitution to the victim, whether an individual of society as a whole. Most importantly, prisons do not restore social order. Prisons do not address the basic breach in society created by crime. Failing to do so, prisons negate any beneficial aspects of the punishment. If the sanctions do not actually allow for the restoration of society, the law is worthless.<br />&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Prisons preempt restorative justice by removing the criminal from society and its community altogether. Prison places the criminal outside of society in the name of punishment, but it also forces the criminal into another order. This new order is the far from natural. The forced mechanical order attempts to control the inmate’s and bend him to the will of the prison order. Prison order lacks all the community elements of general society, relying on raw force to impose its structure. There is no belonging in a prison order. There is only a power struggle between the individual inmate and the state. Order loses the relational and familial aspects entirely. It is not proper order. Even if the inmate conforms to the prison order, he is not at all prepared for social order based on the communal and familial nature of relations. Prison order does not translate to real society. Justice cannot be completed in the restorative function.<br />&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Having done away with a key aspect of order, prisons have all the same problems of a general society that lacks community support for the social order. Prison has each problem to a greater degree because community is almost nonexistent. The raw power of the order, like a totalitarian state, refuses community as rival authority.<br />&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">As individuals are born into families, they have a natural desire for understanding and belonging that community provides in a broader way. When real community does not exist, people naturally migrate to other communities for a sense of belonging. Illicit communities, gangs, mafias, etc. grow to fill the vacuum. Prison encourages the growth of illicit communities because community must be found somewhere. The inmate has been denied the restorative community of general society. The inmate looks for community he can find for protection and belonging. In many prisons, the authorities can do nothing more monitor the increase of gang activity because it cannot be controlled. Inmates leave prison much more likely to be involved in gang activity, or the activity of other illicit communities. Restoration moves further away, and individuals remove further from society in general. Even more, the preventative aspects of punishment are nullified, as the inmate emerges more likely to engage in criminal activity. The obligations are to another order, a criminal order that is antithetical to proper social order.<br />&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Lastly, the breaches in society are never healed. The illicit communities gain more power to rival social order. The state must act to quell these rival powers. As the state accrues power, the social order moves further out of balance. The effects of growing illicit communities are very real, not just spillover. Prisons do not in any way restore the criminal to proper social order. Rather, prisons enable greater disruption of social order.<br />&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">The delusion that prisons can be instruments of justice is recent. Historically, prisons have never restored breaches in social order. Prisons grew for what they do well, removing undesirables, usually political, from society and rounding them up like animals away from the pursuit of a fully human life. Prisons degrade the basic equality of each human, declaring the criminal as less than human, unfit for human society.<br />&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Interestingly, American society implicitly admits prisons fail to provide justice. Many convicted felons are denied voting rights. The law implies that though justice has supposedly been served through prison time, the person cannot reenter political society. Senator Rand Paul has drawn useful attention to this fact in calling for an end to this policy. This is a useful beginning point for policy changes, but the debate must go deeper than ever. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Notes:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br />1. For further reading on the importance of community and its restorative function see Robert A. Nisbet, <i>Community and Power</i> (New York: Oxford University Press, 1953, 1962); R.J. Rushdoony, <i>Law and Society</i> (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 1982); Sandra Walklate, “Crime and Community: Fear or Trust?” <i>The British Journal of Sociology</i>, Vol. 49, No. 4 (1998); and Gordon Bazemore, “The ‘Community’ in Community Justice: Issues, Themes, and Questions for the New Neighborhood Sanctioning Models,” <i>The Justice System Journal</i>, Vol. 19, No. 2 (1997).<br />&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">2. For a powerful study of the statistics of gang activity in prison, see John Winterdyk and Rick Ruddell, “Managing prison gangs: Results from a survey of U.S. Prisons,” <i>Journal of Criminal Justice</i> 38 (2010), 730-36. Note that within the prison system, the only response is to manage or monitor gang activity. Many prison officials have resigned to the fact that prisons already encourage gangs. They need to realize the bigger implications.<br />&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">3. “Sen. Rand Paul calls for restoring felons' voting, gun rights,” <i>Louisville-Courier Journal</i>, September 16, 2013.</span>Jacob L Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08619200814391126038noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-986083927058490014.post-46282986578003850052013-09-20T08:30:00.000-07:002013-09-20T12:57:32.795-07:00The Prisoner of Zenda and the Meaning of Love.<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” </span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">-- Jesus Christ </span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">“But is love the only thing? If love were all, I could follow you in rags to the ends of the world. But in that world, you’d have left the king to die in his cell. Honor binds a woman too, Rudolf. My honor lies in keeping faith with my country and my house. I don’t know why God has let me love you. But I know that I must stay.” </span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">-- Princess Flavia </span></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The Prisoner of Zenda</i> has excited and delighted the imaginations of both young and old for many years. The Adventure novel first published in 1894 by Anthony Hope follows in the tradition of the British adventure story of the time. At the height of the British Empire, the taste for stories of adventurer in these unknown places gave birth to many well-known adventures. Hope placed a new twist, though still involving a member of the British military who had been to those far off lands. <i>The Prisoner of Zenda</i> is set in a European country, though not any better known. The country though matters little. Adventure is the key. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I have read the book, and I did find I very enjoyable. More recently viewed the acclaimed film adaptation, and I thought I would share some thoughts on it since it is fresh in my mind. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WFMCBZH5kl4/UjvQv9NrxTI/AAAAAAAAAPc/vk7mAmWBHq8/s1600/The_Prisoner_of_Zenda_1937_film_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WFMCBZH5kl4/UjvQv9NrxTI/AAAAAAAAAPc/vk7mAmWBHq8/s200/The_Prisoner_of_Zenda_1937_film_poster.jpg" width="129" /></a>The 1937 film adaptation of <i>The Prisoner of Zenda</i> may even surpass the original in publicity if not in substance. The plot follows the conventions of the ordinary man placed in a situation that quickly becomes far more than he bargained for. The unassuming and modest Rudolf Rassendyll has recently retired from military service and is looking forward to a vacation in Easter Europe. As soon as he arrives, he finds that he is a sight to the locals, who all gawk at his very presence. Rudolf finds out that he is the very image of the crown prince, soon to be crowned King Rudolf V. Upon this meeting, the two Rudolfs become quick friends. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br /><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The unprepared Rassendyll is pressed into service when the prince’s scheming brother tries to prevent the coronation in order to place himself on the throne. Rassendyll finds himself needed to imitate the king for the coronation and even to woo the king’s promised bride. Here, of course, things are less than smooth. Rassendyll must forego his own comfort to set everything back in order among the scheming plans of both Michael, and his henchman, Rupert of Hentzau. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The real question of the story though is that of duty. How can one man make a difference by putting his duty and honor before his own comfort? King Rudolf refuses to do so and places both himself and the whole realm for which he is responsible in grave danger. The ruthless Michael can surely not be trusted on the throne. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rassendyll must choose the duty that providence has brought to him to ensure the safe passage of the kingdom to Rudolf. He does so without much reluctance, until he meets the beautiful Princess Flavia. Here love must be aligned with duty, or it can be the ruin of all. Colonel Zapt has the clear idea of this theme, which pervades the whole script: love must align with duty. His love for his king and country drive every action and choice he makes. He must not choose between them, rather he makes them align. When that means allowing Rassendyll to take the throne, Zapt encourages it to restore the proper order, which Michael has broken. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Like many, Rassendyll teaches this lesson better than he learns it. Rassendyll must learn this lesson as well, and he receives it at the mouth of Flavia. When duty and love align, order is restored, even if this means sacrifice. Those who put love in the place of duty, or disregard duty altogether are apt to be most unfulfilled. Rather those who see that they align find fulfillment in the duty. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Christ summarizes the whole duty of man with the command to love. Love is our very purpose and in love we fulfill that purpose. Love does not drive us away from our duty because love truly is that very responsibility. Duty directs our love away from our own selfish desires to others, allowing us to fulfill our purpose, to love truly. This alignment creates the proper structure for a meaningful existence. The question is not one off Love or Duty but of the Duty of Love. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Prisoner of Zenda explores this topic in its central theme, and I find encouragement in the conclusions it is able to present. Watch it for yourself sometime, and I expect you to will be provoked to explore this topic further. The ability of the film to provide such clear perspectives and strong conclusion on these questions makes the adventure itself more exhilarating. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The whole movie is well played by its leading actors though the direction and cinematography leave something to be desired. Ronald Coleman does a wonderful job as both Rudolfs. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. plays the rascally Rupert to perfection, and in doing so he makes up for the weakness of Michael’s character. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It is a wonderful adventure story that spawned the political decoy plot element in adventure fiction. Take 100 minutes of your time and experience the adventure. The one on the surface and the one beneath. </span></span>Jacob L Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08619200814391126038noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-986083927058490014.post-53415267070522762013-09-19T14:02:00.000-07:002013-09-19T21:49:14.546-07:00A Critical Survey of the Modern State, Part 4<span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">By the 19th century, natural rights theory had come under attack from many different angles and fell into disfavor. Providing perhaps the most radical divergence from the natural right, compact theory of statehood was GWF Hegel and his historicism. Hegel placed reason in a primary role infused in history unfolding in time. Right became subservient to the rational will of historical progress. Hegel believed that by his time, history had rationally created the “Germanic Realm” of regimes, the modern state.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GtP48c5Uvsk/UjtjJMm9RUI/AAAAAAAAAPA/-MTCn8HWT_Q/s1600/Hegel1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GtP48c5Uvsk/UjtjJMm9RUI/AAAAAAAAAPA/-MTCn8HWT_Q/s200/Hegel1.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Hegel’s strict historicism saw history as a Spirit coming to know itself and unfolding through different stages of consciousness over time. This “absolute” or “universal” Spirit possesses pure rationality because the rational can only be defined in terms of the Spirit itself and its progress. The Spirit progresses through time by working itself out dialectically. Through the conflict of the thesis, as the Spirit presently exists, and the antithesis within it, the Spirit can progress to a new synthesis as the latest expression of history. The Spirit develops rational self-consciousness by knowing itself through the conflict that reveals its next step.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">At Hegel’s time, the state represented the fullest expression of the Spirit of that point. The state also thinks and knows itself; it has its own self consciousness (§257). The state has full rationality because it represents actuality of the absolute Spirit in the political realm. Individuals, rather than combining via natural right to create the state, find their rational expression in subjection of their wills to the fully rational will of the state. The state provides objectivity and universality to its individual members as they align with it. Reason is embodied in the state, and rationality comes to the members of the state as its interests are infused into the individual interests (§258). By willing the objective purposes of the state, individuals become reasonable creatures in accordance with the truly rational Spirit of history. </span><br /><a href="http://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">The role of reason in Hegel’s modern state can be more clearly understood in contrast with religion. Whereas the state represents rational will, religion is pure feeling (§270). The state is a rational, thinking thing and must then rule over the passionate, feeling religion. Religion only finds place in the modern state if it pursues objective truth and is actualized by the state. Thus, religion’s importance lies in terms of subjection to the state as feelings should align with and support reason. Religion can be allowed to develop under the auspices of the state in pursuit of rational actuality. The state must defend its own objectivity against the subjective truth of religion (§270). For this reason, science provides a better ally for the state because they are both in terms of actual rational objective truth. Opinions have a role in providing antitheses for the development of the state in terms of the absolute Spirit, but only recognition by the state can make opinion rational. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span><br /><b><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">The subjectivity of individuals and their opinion provide an animating soul for the state as it provides objective self consciousness for them.</span></b><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">The rational will of the state expresses itself in the laws and constitution of that state. Thus the laws of each state represent the good for that particular state as the collective rational will of the subjective individuals within it. This is not through a contract of the wills as natural rights theories would suggest. Instead it is an organic conscious spirit embodying the individuals within it as particular moments of the Absolute spirit fully expressed in the state. Reason moves to actuality in the will of the state, its laws (§258). The constitution like the laws of the state is fully rational. The constitutions of various states arise by the differentiation of each power within the rational concept of the state (§272). The different powers require separation but also interdependence in terms of the organic whole of the Spirit. If the powers become too separate and self-sufficient they essentially create multiple consciousnesses and the state divides. Thus, the constitution must be developed and developing in history (§273). Constitutions cannot just be created by individuals; they grow. The powers of the regime are separated but must express the will of the state to have rational existence. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Most important to the state is the unifying, executive power of the monarch (or executive power) because he gives a human embodiment to the state. The monarch neatly represents in one person the rational self-determination of the state (§275). The monarch provides the visible center of unity in the objective state. The good constitutional monarch simply oversees the administration of the cogs of the state giving his approval to its rational expressions in law. By providing the “I” to the state the monarch facilitates movement of rational thoughts from ideality to actuality through the organism of the modern state. Once again, the contrast should be drawn to the natural right theory which placed the sovereign as the natural end of compact. For Hegel, the monarch is the self-expression of the state (§281) that comes out of the rational state itself, not any natural right.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Right within Hegel’s state cannot be natural in Hobbesian terms, preceding statehood. Instead rights only exist for individuals as recognized by the rational expression of the state in laws (§260). Rights follow from the will of the state and only exist in conjunction with the individual’s duty to unite personal will and interest with the interest of the state (§261). Only when right and duty from the reciprocal relationship of the individuals and objective state are synthesized can true, rational freedom exist. Unity alone is reasonable and provides a basis for rights and freedom. Inasmuch as “rights” exist, they are simply the rights recognized by reason in the thought of the self-conscious state, really civil and historical rights. The institutions of the state provide the avenue for bringing its rationality to individuals. Patriotism causes individuals to habitually will the good of the state (§268). With these united both state and individual have truly rational existence in the Spirit of history.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Externally also, the state must also be fully rational, but war and conflict seem to deny this. Not so for Hegel. War and conflict provide for the dialectic of the Absolute Spirit. Because states are each their own self-conscious unit, the spirit of history alone can judge between them. The result of wars and conflicts in history provide the synthesis between the conflicting rationalities of different states. Individual sacrifice in war is as rational as war itself because it is for duty to the rational state (§325). Externally, Hegel comes closer to Hobbes' state of nature on an international scale. Rather than might alone making right as in the state of nature, it is the rational absolute Spirit that determines the end of international conflict. Rationality is retained and extended to the universal level through the unfolding of the Absolute spirit. Nation states are the highest power on earth (§330) and work together internationally while in conflict. International right can only be understood to exist when recognized rationally by states just as internal right must be expressed in the thought of the state.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Thus, for Hegel history itself is purely rational and reason plays the central demarcating role as history judges between the nation states. The state is the fully rational expression of the spirit of history and history alone judges states. History has progressed to the point of rational statehood as the Germanic realm (§358) in which the human and divine nature are met. The state then truly is “the march of God in the world” (§258).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">The development of the modern state up through Hegel can be seen as a tug of war between a deterministic and freedom perspective. This is because the though surrounding it has been a part of the larger dynamic of nature and freedom that has imbued nearly all modern philosophy. Machiavelli argued that the state is all about power and the freedom of the prince to express it. Hobbes agrees but argues the power is not free, but it is determined by nature. Locke, Montesquieu, and the revolutionaries interject that reason tells us that men are free with natural rights prior to the development of the state outlined by Hobbes. Hegel’s historicism provides the new determining mechanism that integrates reason also into the state opposing the natural right theories.</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Source Cited:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Hegel, G.W.F. The Philosophy of Right. Trans. Alan Wright. Focus Publishing. R. Pullins Company: Newburyport, MA. 2002. Print.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">*This has been adapted from a previous essay entitled, "The Modern State Redefined." </span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"> </span>Jacob L Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08619200814391126038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-986083927058490014.post-83454207751963419302013-09-02T08:08:00.001-07:002013-09-02T08:23:55.288-07:00A Critical Survey of the Modern State, Part 3<span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As the modern state became the reality of modern politics, Hobbes' theory of the naturally sovereign state was enacted in different forms. Many thinkers after Hobbes held that reason also determined natural rights for each man beyond just self-preservation. States developed in combinations and balances of sovereignty and rights. For thinkers, this was the the struggle of nature and reason. The 18th century regime changes in England, France, and the United States show different combinations, birthed in differing conceptions of sovereignty and rights within the modern state. Most importantly, they demonstrate that the modern state reduces the players in the quest for power to two: the state and the individual.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Montesquieu studied closely the development of the British regime in the 18th century. He found it to be the best expression of a free, modern state. Montesquieu thinks that republics best preserve freedom but must adapt to the modern world (or the modern state idea). The state, for Montesquieu, must respect the individual's rights. Montesquieu sees the laws and constitution as the best expression of reason for the state. Laws are not reasonable in themselves as acts of a state. Instead, the laws must preserve the freedom of the individual within them as reason dictates they best can (128). Reason, for Montesquieu, does not belong exclusively to the state, but the state should use it. </span></span><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JS8IB1p_Fyo/UiSpRW-xl0I/AAAAAAAAAKE/Iu_0JcbrljM/s1600/parliament.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="125" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JS8IB1p_Fyo/UiSpRW-xl0I/AAAAAAAAAKE/Iu_0JcbrljM/s200/parliament.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In order for republics to survive in modern statehood they must confederate to provide external strength in addition to free institutions (126). Montesquieu follows the natural right theory of government. In external relations, rights belong to the state in terms of natural desire for self-preservation (133). Just war is rooted in natural right and defense of the interest of the state itself. Enlightenment, the development of reason, leads to peace as states respect rights internally and externally. Thus, conquering states owe a debt to human nature (137). States cannot claim an exclusive rationality to overrun the rights of other states or people. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br /><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mixed regimes are Montesquieu’s ideal when constituted in terms of natural right of the people and unified by a monarch. This is the English regime which Montesquieu studies. Power in this regime must not only be separate, but must also provide a check on the other powers in order to protect rights (152). The powers are separated by a representative and aristocratic legislature with strong executive to unite the state. Rather than the people bending their subjective goals to the will of the state, the state through representative institutions moves towards the people’s ends for their overall good. The ends of the state are not rational and good in and of themselves. Instead their rationality depends on the regime. They are good when pursuing political liberty, as in the English constitution (151) The state itself must bow to a greater purpose, that is, the political liberty of the citizens. The mixed representative regime brings together all the various parts of the nation and protects liberty in self-government. The good of the whole is the rational goal for the laws of the state. Representatives allow for deliberation and reason in the assembly of the state while preserving the great goal of political liberty. This deliberation of representatives places them apart from the direct will of the people, which would to often fall prey to the natural instinct for preservation. Representatives can concern themselves with what is truly rational the good of the people and the good of the state met as one. Thus, the state is absolute in its government, but is founded on the free self government of the individuals (310). </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Separation of the powers in the English constitution also means to protect the liberty of the people by checking the powers of the government. Some freedoms such as speech must be necessarily preserved in order to protect the constitution even if speech agitates against the state (309). Reason demands freedom and works itself out in the institutions of a free society. Reason is good in itself (315). The very act of reasoning is good for the state. Even if the people reason poorly, the free institutions and representation provide safeguards against the wide effects of poor reasoning. The republic then is free to be commercial and international with the executive power respected abroad while the people’s representatives keep the internal works running. This English regime provides the strongest example for Montesquieu of a modern state concerned with freedom and also ruled by reason even if lacking the grace of more statist centered societies. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Henry Adams takes a look at the American regime in the early part of its growth and the role that reason played in its nation and state. Adams found the American society to be rather rough and hard working. It lacked many of the refinements of more advanced European societies. The lack of general enlightenment demonstrates a lesser role for the purely rational in the American regime (31). The American regime moved farther than ever in the direction of full equality in political liberty (83). Socially as well, culture and enlightenment was broadened even while shallow. Thus with wealth as the new goal for many, the state became one which provided institutions for the secure pursuit rather than subsuming all pursuits in its own exclusive ends. The American regime placed the state alongside, not over, the private interest as the securer of it. Jefferson tried to encourage progress by melding the democratic character with science (93). Once again the distinction is clear: reason, progress, and the like are the area of the private sphere over and outside of the state. The state must facilitate and respect, not overrun the individual interest. With this approach, Adams notes that in the social and private spheres Americans were able to make great scientific advancements, even beyond those of Europe, for practical ends (96). The democratic and conservative character downplayed pure reason in exchange for practicality. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">With the French Revolution, the full other end of the spectrum in which pure reason tries to create a modern regime, shows itself. This did not fare well. According to Tocqueville, the real study of the French regime should be made before the Revolution to see how the modern state and nation of France developed. The state created before the revolution had become totally centralized, both governmentally and administratively (84). The ends of the state, under the preceding monarchs, took complete precedent and brought all administration into itself (123). It did so simply on the right and power of the monarch more purely demonstrating the Hobbesian ideal. In doing so it completely undercut the power and influence of the French aristocracy in the political realm. The usefulness of the aristocracy declined, and it became hated by the lower classes (118). Wealth became a driving factor as with the American and English regimes but always with the state in view rather than the private interest. </span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_Y5BJ118H-k/UiSpQPEzdEI/AAAAAAAAAKA/50mpe2WR8UE/s1600/french-revolution.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="164" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_Y5BJ118H-k/UiSpQPEzdEI/AAAAAAAAAKA/50mpe2WR8UE/s200/french-revolution.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Resultantly, private interests had to match those of the regime if the individual desired to have any influence. Offices became bought and sold by the monarch because the rising importance of wealth to the state (125). All political power had to be administered in line with the central government; local, self-government decreased. The state became the father as well as the government of the people and the actualization of all power within the nation. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Old Regime built a foundation of administrative centralization under the aristocracy and needed only the revolution to destroy the aristocracy completely (136). The bureaucracy of the regime became the new aristocracy. This bureaucracy created a climate in which the application of the law became subject to the whim of the bureaucrat himself. This created contempt for the law among the French (142). The French also became more isolated in their classes rather than working together (England) or equalizing (America). The isolation continued until equality could only be found in an empire under Napoleon. The individual could no longer even freely will the good of the state, but must simply live under that will. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The French Revolution was very philosophical. Because of the centralization of the old regime, the reformers had no practice in politics. For this reason they took little care for practical matters instead proposing wide reforms in abstract terms that could not be sustained (197). Without public life in France, politics became a literary and philosophic pursuit (198). The Revolution was birthed by pure reason, but reason itself cannot sustain a state. This “reason” built an imaginary society which could not translate to the real conditions of a modern state (201). Tocqueville contrasts French Revolution thinkers with Montesquieu’s English regime where the intellectuals mixed with the politicians so that reason was tempered by prudence and sustained progress could be made (200). France kept these apart, and when the intellectuals took power they could not hold it. As against the American Revolution and experience, the French revolution had a very irreligious character (206). The revolution was birthed in the enlightenment of the <i>philosophes </i>who rejected religion. Instead the revolution became like a religious movement itself, pursued by its followers with religious zeal (100). The French Revolution created a passionate rationalism that surpassed any seen before. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">These developments in the practice of modern statehood demonstrate a new layer of complexity to the “power determined by nature” synthesis of Machiavelli and Hobbes. Reason seemed to indicate an equality of individuals that demanded rights for them as well. This created a new tension between reason and nature, as well as the individual and state. The examples from the British, American, and French states, show that an appeal to reason could mean more political freedom against the power hungry modern state, but could also lead to terror and empires. Nevertheless, the all demonstrate a turning away from Hobbes' conception of nature as determinative for the modern state.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sources Cited: </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Adams, Henry. <i>The Formative Years, Volume 1</i>. Ed. Herbert Ager. Greenwood Press: Westport, CT. 1947, 1974. Print. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Montesquieu. <i>The Spirit of the Laws</i>. Trans. Thomas Nugent. Hafner Press: NY. 1949. Print. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tocqueville, Alexis de. T<i>he Old Regime and the Revolution, Volume I</i>. Trans. Alan S. Kahan. U of Chicago Press: 1998. Print.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">*This blog has been adapted from a previous essay entitled, "The Modern State Redefined". </span></span>Jacob L Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08619200814391126038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-986083927058490014.post-24835144770590920192013-08-18T22:54:00.001-07:002013-08-18T22:55:28.622-07:00A Critical Survey of the Modern State, Part 2<span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">While Machiavelli was penning his masterpiece, several rulers through Europe are already beginning to practice many of his ideas. These rulers agreed with Machiavelli that effective sovereignty necessitated total centralization of power.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">In France under Louis XI, the power of dukes was finally broken in 1472 and the road to the modern state was paved. In Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella did the same. They drove out the Muslims and Jews and instituted the inquisition to root out all dissenters. In England, King Henry the VIII continued the centralization of power begin by his father. He dominated the other nobles and the parliament. He also increased his power by putting the Anglican church fully under his influence and separating from Rome in 1534. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">As Machiavelli gathered from his study, the centralization of power was the key. On fact, he wrote the prince as manual for Lorenzo de Medici to do the same in Italy.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">By the time Thomas Hobbes came into the scene in the early 1600s, the modern state had become well instituted in many places over a 100 years. Hobbes sought to provide a new explanation and justification for it that went deeper than raw power. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span><br /><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Hobbes takes Machiavelli’s materialism even further. His project has the benefit of one hundred years of Machiavellian statehood in Europe. Thus, Hobbes did not need to impose the new understanding of power over the Medieval structure. Instead of acquisition and building of the modern state, Hobbes uses a new science of politics to understand the modern state as a natural entity. For Hobbes, the concern is no longer simply the wise use of power, but its full expression in the sovereignty of the state. Hobbes views the state having come into its own. Next, he looks to lay its foundations even deeper as the very outgrowth of human nature and society. Machiavelli’s Prince must seize power and execute its use wisely to create a modern state. Hobbes’ Leviathan, on the other hand, possesses the only legitimate claim to power. Leviathan exists because he fully expresses human society rather than a conventional structure. Because Leviathan shows the modern state come into its own, in Leviathan, the true religious and moral foundations of the modern state take a sharper focus. </span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s9Tz_cVC02Q/UhGwgnEgfwI/AAAAAAAAAJE/D6veFDUnudk/s1600/569px-Thomas_Hobbes_%2528portrait%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s9Tz_cVC02Q/UhGwgnEgfwI/AAAAAAAAAJE/D6veFDUnudk/s200/569px-Thomas_Hobbes_%2528portrait%2529.jpg" width="189" /></a></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Hobbes differs from Machiavelli in his view of power in terms of the modern state. As Hobbes tries to delve deeper, into a science of the modern state, he creates a new basis for power rather than simply the end of the state. Hobbes sees the modern state as the product of man moving from man in nature to man in society. Both power and the state become means towards man’s only natural end, survival. (129) Power becomes more than simply the “lust for dominance” per Machiavelli’s Prince. Power becomes the sovereignty of Hobbes’ Leviathan, a fuller and more structured power but not rooted in domination. Men naturally desire dominion, but they cannot pursue both dominion and survival. Leviathan subsumes to itself all man’s desire for liberty and dominance so that men can better pursue his ultimate end of survival. Thus, power is central to Leviathan as well, but as a tool of the state itself rather than the establishing factor of the state. True sovereignty is the clearest definition of the modern state in Hobbes’ view. Sovereignty rather than dominance. Sovereignty provides the peace and safety for men to rise above the state of nature to full life. (132) Thus, Hobbes, spends most of Part II of <i>Leviathan</i> clarifying sovereignty.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">The sovereign represents not only all the power in the modern state but all the rights as well. The only right left to men individually is life, that is, the right to survival. (164) Leviathan represents the natural derivation of the rights of those who participate in him. Thus, power is not something that must be acquired; it rightfully belongs to the sovereign alone. No “right” of an individual can stay Leviathan’s power because all the rights belong to the sovereign. All power is within his use. Legislative, executive, and judicial functions reside in Leviathan, not because of his will to power, but by right.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">As with Machiavelli, Hobbes recognizes that no true sovereign can allow rivals to the exercise of power noting that division of power destroys sovereignty. (140, 238) Once again, Hobbes does not see this as a simple assertion of the modern state but as the very nature of sovereignty. Even if Leviathan acquires new territory, his claim to sovereignty remains the same. By nature, the sovereign has power in exchange for the preservation of safety and order. Thus, whether by institution or acquisition the true basis for total sovereignty is nature.&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Hobbes recognizes power as the driving force of sovereignty, but he views it as more of an formal cause than a essential or final cause of sovereignty within the modern state. Power is the nature of sovereignty rather than its pursuit. Money provides the lifeblood of the commonwealth for Hobbes. (188) Towards this end, Hobbes agrees with Machiavelli that the people must be allowed the freedom necessary to stay happy and productive. A productive economy supports Leviathan materially in the same way the constitution of the commonwealth does formally. As the sovereign possess all power within the commonwealth, he also posses all right to command. (191) Command places obligation on those within the commonwealth. Laws represent the will of Leviathan. (198) They are a direct outworking of sovereignty. Just as Machiavelli stressed the need for force to derive directly from the state’s power, so Hobbes believes the laws must as well. Of course, Leviathan still has all useful resorts force necessary to maintain sovereignty, but ideally arms are not necessary as much as for the Prince. Law, as the command of the sovereign, demands obedience from the people by their preexisting consent. They have no other choice within the commonwealth. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Men, as stated before, have a natural desire to domination. This desire, however, is given over to Leviathan for the institution of full human society taking man above and beyond the state of nature. Men do however remain free within Hobbes' structure of the modern state. (159) Leviathan possesses full power as sovereign, but only when that power is used does it place restriction on the movement of men within the commonwealth. Man retains his right of self-preservation because this is the fundamental nature of man. (164) Men must also recognize that assertion of any right against the sovereign is devolution into the state of nature where power alone rules and life is cheap. The silence of the law provides the liberty of subjects within the modern state. (159) </span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Following Machiavelli, Hobbes’ modern state creates its own religion, one even more materialistic. All religion and education must be subject to the sovereignty of the state and towards the ends of the state. (181) As the state is the natural end of human society, all other parts must fall in line in terms of it. Hobbes develops his materialism by doing away with all things supernatural. Everything derives itself from nature. Man rises from the state of nature to life within the modern state. Fear drives man from the state of nature into society, but this fear must only be of things material and present. (222) Nature explains all. Power in the commonwealth is nothing but the outworking of nature. For this reason, Hobbes parodies the Decalogue, the ultimate statement of command, placing Leviathan in the place of God. (250-252) Only one sovereign can be recognized; the people should set aside days to learn the ways of the sovereign; and more. Leviathan arises from nature and wields true temporal power. Thus, Leviathan alone has a true claim to a God-like existence. Thus, that which religion tries to place outside the material world finds true expression within the sovereign state because the material is the truly real. Even God, as understood by Christianity, only rules by his will to power, argues Hobbes. (262-263) Thus, God is nothing more than a fantastical version of Leviathan, a fantastical claim to power without material consequence. Leviathan should be the true concern of men because he has true material and temporal power. Everything of consequence reduces to power, and power reduces to nature. </span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Hobbes sees similar tension that arises internationally with the growth of the modern state. This he also places within a natural setting, on a natural foundation. For Hobbes, the Law of Nations is simply the state of nature on a larger scale. (260) Whereas men have risen out of the state of nature individually in creating the commonwealth, no such contract exists among nations states. Thus, in relation of states to each other only the law of nature applies and self preservation is the only factor. Hobbes describes the state of nature as basically a state of war. Thus Leviathan, like the Prince, must become a prophet of war in terms of foreign relations. Whether as a result of a desire for acquisition or because of the natural state of things both Hobbes and Machiavelli recognize the need for centralization of force in the modern state in order to ensure its maintenance.&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">As recognized by Nietzsche, Augustine, and countless other philosophers, the desire for power and domination constitutes a basic part of the human constitution and experience. Machiavelli and Hobbes wisely recognize this fact in creating the philosophy and science of the modern state. Both recognized that power plays a central role in statehood as well. Hobbes begins with the nature of man. In man’s nature, he see the will to power, to dominate other men. When met with a stronger foe, the will to domination conflicts with the will to survive. Here, Machiavelli branches off. The Prince must dominate to usher in and protect the state. In doing so, he makes wise, and if necessary, full use of power. Hobbes, on the other hand, sees not one Prince (state) rising by greater use of power. Instead, men contract with one another to pursue the more basic instinct of survival. Leviathan results. Rather than the dominating use of power (e.g. the Prince), Leviathan is the natural collective of the many wills within the commonwealth. Leviathan then is more secure within his commonwealth because no other will can make any sort of legitimate claim to power. The Prince must constantly watch for and suppress any rising will to power. Power resides naturally in Leviathan while the Prince must rely on the force which his own will can muster.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /> *All parenthetical references are to page numbers in <i>Leviathan</i>, by Thomas Hobbes. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1962. <br /> </span>Jacob L Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08619200814391126038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-986083927058490014.post-7201204648032137662013-08-14T20:43:00.001-07:002013-08-15T13:51:37.576-07:00A Critical Survey of the Modern State, Part 1<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">"By justice a king builds up the land, but he who exacts gifts tears it down."</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">- A proverb of King Solomon </span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">The modern state has become the standard of acceptable statehood in the 21st century world. The most basic main components of the modern state include a centralized political decision-making and administration that can be projected over a large area. Additionally, modern states have been coextensive with a distinct nation, forming nation-states. </span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ag3HLONYRW0/UgxOPNl8R4I/AAAAAAAAAIw/pgy7JvMLkd0/s1600/Map+of+the+World.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="121" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ag3HLONYRW0/UgxOPNl8R4I/AAAAAAAAAIw/pgy7JvMLkd0/s200/Map+of+the+World.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><br />With the ubiquity and permanence of modern state regimes, it may be surprising to some that this predominance has only been the case for the last few hundred years. The modern state has overcome all previous regimes when the have come head to head in wars because no other regime has been able to match the modern state in centralized organization and projecting power. <br /><br />For those interested in the proper understanding of human right and authority and the implementation of justice, the problem of the modern state should raise some serious questions. Over the next couple weeks, I will be publishing a series of blogs excerpted from papers I have written for a previous study of the modern state up until the end of the 19th century when it really became entrenched in the international political order. Though this study, we will take a critical look at the philosophy and development that undergirds the modern state. We will have the opportunity to reflect on the following (and other) important questions: <br /> <br />1. What is the thought behind the moderns state? Does this thought fit into a Biblical understanding of statehood? <br /><br />2. Is the modern state inherently at odds with a Biblical conception of states or can the two be reconciled in a reasonable manner? <br /><br />3. How has the development of the modern state affected its appearance today? Can the modern <br /> <br />4. Does the modern state provide for the ethical ideal of justice? Can it provide justice? Is the modern state a perfect system? A useful but faulty one? An inherently corrupt one? <br /> <br />5. Is the modern state here to stay or will history provide for the development of a new (better or worse) political organization.<br /><br />After our survey we will be able to come back and touch on these questions directly.<br /><br />Any survey of the development of the modern state must begin with Niccolo Machiavelli, the 16th Century Italian political theorist, and here we will begin as well:<br /><br /> The modern political project developed in response to the feudalistic regime structure of the Middle Ages. States began to assert sovereignty and centralize over against the influence the Catholic Church and feudal lords. But what exactly is sovereignty and how was it being centralized? Early theorists and scholars of the modern state attempted to develop answers to these questions. Power played a major part in answering these questions. The quest for power, its organization, and its use have long been the focal points of regimes. The modern state gives a new perspective on all these fronts.<a name='more'></a><br /><br />In arguing for the importance of modernizing politics, Machiavelli developed the state system which he though could make best use of the new political form. Power plays the central role. Power itself gives rise the modern state as Machiavelli’s Prince looks to acquire territories and assert sovereignty within them. Then the power becomes centralized under the state, and the state uses all necessary power to further its ends. At Machiavelli’s time the Catholic Church still exercised extensive influence, and all previous projects had to work within the strongly Christian ethical and moral structure that pervaded Europe. To counteract this and allow the state to further itself in the wise use of power, Machiavelli needed to tweak the moral structure. He does this by implementing a more humanistic and materialist standard. On this new moral basis Machiavelli builds. <br /><br />Machiavelli begins by looking at the territory in which he can build his modern project. This brings up a basic tenet of the modern state, clearly defined territory. Power must have a territory in which it can exercise its sovereignty or it is not sovereign. The mode of acquisition also is very important to Machiavelli. (<i>The Prince</i>, 5) However the territory is acquired, the Prince (Machiavelli’s term for the state) must assert full power. Thus, in acquiring new territory, the Prince must make it a priority to gain popular support. Raw power conquering a territory is not enough. The wise use of power includes the garnering of real support for its sustenance. Whether entering a new territory or being raised to power in an old one, the Prince needs to maintain support. This support is best to be popular rather than oligarchic because popular support leaves no possible rivals to power. (40) The people generally are easier to please than the aristocrats. The people have a greater awe of power. Power without support will fade. The same holds for power used badly. In acquisition, the Prince must be sure to eliminate the previous bloodline or hereditary power within that area. (9) Thus, secondly, the modern state must eliminate all other claims to its power. Power used wisely is power used exclusively. This exclusivity of power carries farther as the Prince must curtail the influence of the church or religious authorities within his region. (16) Any use of power outside of the state structure represents a potential threat to it. Here also begins the development of Machiavelli’s new morality of the state. It is materialistic in that it bases itself on the acquisition of things and power towards acquisition. It is humanistic in that all is based on the activity of the state disregarding providence or religious influence. It is a materialistic humanism.<br /><br />The Prince must fully devote himself to power of acquisition and maintenance. Machiavelli basically describes the Prince as a prophet of war (conjuring Christ in Revelations as Machiavelli humanizes everything).<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QCgDfyMfw6M/UgxN6JDXzLI/AAAAAAAAAIg/HK2afbeZG7k/s1600/The+Prince.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QCgDfyMfw6M/UgxN6JDXzLI/AAAAAAAAAIg/HK2afbeZG7k/s200/The+Prince.jpg" width="125" /></a></div>The Prince must constantly prepare to make use of his power by force. (60) Use of power must be accompanied by the centralization of power in order for the modern project to succeed. Machiavelli takes a practical approach here. The rising modern state and the drive for power that accompanies it place a new strain on the international structure. The power must then be centralized in order to be used well as describe above. Machiavelli looks to the Turks for his example of a more modern centralized nation. (17) He recognizes that the centralization of power not only provides for its better use, but it also insulates the state. The centralized state is harder to conquer, and easier to hold once the Prince is in place because the power structure of the modern state flows completely from the Prince’s will to power. Key to the centralization of power is the centralization of force. Force must be at the use of the Prince to ensure the maintenance and expansion of the power structure. For this reason, Machiavelli, notes that the force of arms best suited to the modern project are those belonging exclusively to the Prince, not mercenary or auxiliary forces. (49) This wisely keeps all force, which is nothing but another use of power, within the direct purview and command of the Prince himself. All power must flow from the Prince and as directly as possible. The defense of the principality must also have direct correlation to the power of the Prince. (44) Good force basically makes good laws for Machiavelli. (48) Force is power in use, and good force thus is good use of power. All good government flows from the good use of power.<br /><br /><br />Power for the Prince also means power over the seemingly uncontrollable in life. Power must be total. For Machiavelli, nothing is truly out of man’s control. In terms of Machiavelli’s new material humanism, the “powers” of fortune can also be mastered by the Prince. (101) They are not something extra-material, but fully within the Prince’s grasp when he wisely uses his power. The Prince must prudently use all means necessary to take power over the “powers” of nature and fortune (and even God). Cruelty then is judged not in itself but in its use. (37-38) All the virtues of antiquity only have value in as much as they are useful to the Prince. They no longer represent good ends in themselves, but as with everything else they become means towards the ends of the state and the Princes will to power. The power of the state must be protected at all cost. When the use of classical virtues facilitates the Prince’s will to power, it is good. When it does not, the virtues are discarded until further usefulness can be found for them. The traditional ends to which the moral structure previously pointed disappear in Machiavelli’s new moral stance. As the only true powers are of this world, or subordinate to them, the ends or bases of morality for the new state cannot be found outside of this world, but within it. The only judge of actions then is in terms of the maintenance of the Prince’s power structure. Virtue is replaced by strength, word by force. Prudence, relative to the external and internal conditions of the state, dictates the necessity and use of virtue by the Prince. Virtuous appearance must be maintained, but the true Prince must be strong, a user of virtue, not a slave to it. (38) The Church, then for Machiavelli must also modernize or it will die out. As the modern Prince/state allows for no rival claims to authority, the Church must develop its own principalities if it wants to maintain temporal power in the modernized world. (45-47) The Church must play by the same rules as other states, which virtually means abandoning its former religion for Machiavelli’s new humanism, or it will lose all temporal significance outside of the state’s allowance. <br /><br />Power must also be on constant display in the modern state. Power in the modern project becomes the only thing really worth respecting in itself. Everything else has become only a means to the use of power. Thus, the Prince must be always ready to make show of his power to gain the fear and awe of the people. (40) The people will recognize and support a truly powerful state for their own well being. This power need not interfere with the people, but instead inspire them towards peaceful productivity. (91) The full use of power, Machiavelli recognizes, is not always the wisest use of it. <br /><br />* This blog is adapted from a previous essay entitled “The Founding of the Modern State: By Nature and Power” </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">** All parenthetical citations are page references to: The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, translated by Harvey C. Mansfield. University of Chicago Press, 1998.</span></span>Jacob L Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08619200814391126038noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-986083927058490014.post-64496019914128210962013-08-07T10:34:00.000-07:002013-08-07T19:27:46.466-07:00Anna Karenina: The Need for Reality<span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">*Note: This is my first book review on this blog. My reviews may contain minor spoilers, but I will try to refrain from sharing plot elements except the bare minimum necessary to make the review meaningful. I hope you will find that to be the case. Read on.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wFLxkzAdM78/UgKD2WshhZI/AAAAAAAAAH4/bRP9R455j84/s1600/200px-AnnaKareninaTitle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wFLxkzAdM78/UgKD2WshhZI/AAAAAAAAAH4/bRP9R455j84/s200/200px-AnnaKareninaTitle.jpg" width="131" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">“There is less charm in life when one thinks of death, but there is more peace.” </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">-- Leo Tolstoy in <i>Anna Karenina</i>&nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">It all began the day Anna Karenina stepped of the train and the rail worker stepped in front of it. The sight of the rail worker’s death causes quite the disruption in Anna’s seemingly peaceful life. The beautiful Anna is the dutiful, if not loving, wife of the respected, but much older Karenin, a public official. Anna has resigned herself to this life, but she has not truly devoted herself to it. Anna imagines she has come to Moscow on a goodwill mission to reconcile her sister-in-law, Dolly, to Anna’s unfaithful brother, Stiva. After seeing the untimely and disturbing death of the rail worker at the Moscow station, Anna perceives a bad omen, but she cannot understand it. Her peaceful life is about to be run over by a train of its own, a train of her own making.&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Tolstoy’s study and critique of hypocrisy in his contemporary Russian society play a vital role in the novel. Anna’s undulating path begins with her own hypocritical choice to accept the advances of Count Alexei Vronsky even as she reconciles her brother to his wife after his own latest affair. Anna hypocritically refuses to halt Vronsky’s advances, allowing his attention to come between her and Karenin. She begins to compare him unfavorably to Vronsky, not Vronsky as he is, but Vronsky as she has come to create him.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Anna’s egoism does not allow her to account for the perspective that society brings to her relationships. She attempts to maintain and regain her position in society despite the fact that she has chosen to break with it. Society itself is built on the trustworthy relationships of individuals. Society cannot exist when this trust breaks down. Anna places herself outside of society, but she cannot understand why society cannot be for her in her own choices. Tolstoy wonderfully places us within Anna’s own thought as she wrestles with social opinions and the society that she would have for herself. She cannot impose her own egoistic conception on those around her, so she tries to place it on those closest to her, especially, Vronsky. When she cannot control even Vronsky, she realizes that she has been lying to herself all along. It is all outside of her control, unwilling to turn upon herself and accept a new standard of control her only alternative is to let herself go. As she has made the choice to live beyond the established order, she loses all sense of order. Anna, like all of us, only has power within the ordered context of society. By placing herself outside and above this context, Anna loses all power. Through the novel, we painfully watch her realize this fact without acknowledging it.&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Tolstoy drives this point home in Anna’s overuse of drugs to help her to sleep. As she experiences the loss of control over her environment, Anna loses the ability to control her own psyche. Here lies the contrast between Anna and the novel’s deuteragonist, Konstantin Levin. Levin also does not appreciate the hypocritical tendencies of society, but he does not attempt to place himself beyond it. Instead he retreats to the society in which his life can have for him the most meaning. He does not abandon. Levin finds in the country and through the hard working peasants on his farm the context in which he can exercise his beliefs. Levin though must learn to integrate into this context the close relationship with Kitty, his eventual bride.&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Providence works through the questionable choices of Anna as her attraction takes Vronsky from his attentions towards Kitty. Kitty reaches a point of depression that actually allows her to grow by reexamining her core worldview and strengthen her commitment to a life freed from the hypocrisies seen all around her. Her relationship with Levin masterfully displays their individual and collective maturation as they deepen their faith and commitment. This maturation allows them to resist the evil influences of city social life that proved to be too much for the egoistic Anna.&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Levin finds new and deeper love for Kitty by allowing her a place at his side as they work together. They are brought together not only by a love for each other but by the fact that they are motivated by the same principles. This is on display as Kitty joins with Levin in the caring for Levin’s dying brother. By working with each other, Levin and Kitty create new and deeper bond. Kitty raises her estimation in Levin’s eyes and his love for her grows allowing them to weather the troubles of their young marriage. Despite the many struggles, Levin and Kitty grow closer and each renders the other more effective in their work.&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Adversely, Anna has no place in her husband's work. She has no direction for her love and her relationship with him. While she appears to be safely within the marriage, it is not a marriage at all as the novel plays out. Her love and devotion have no directing force or principle beyond herself and this leaves her open to the choices, which cause her downfall. This too is Tolstoy’s critique of his society, particularly in the cities of his contemporary Russia. Society expected the faithfulness in marriage without giving its members the opportunity to act out the very purpose of marriage. Levin and Kitty are able to do find this purpose and develop a rewarding relationship from it, while the lack of purpose in general society can only bring unhappiness and demise, as Anna so tragically demonstrates.&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Tolstoy has created a masterpiece that many have declared the greatest novel ever written. Even Tolstoy's contemporary Fyodor Dostoyevsky called it perfect, and he may be right. Tolstoy brings the reader close to his individual characters through his narration and allows us to decipher their thoughts motivations within a beautifully constructed drama. This constant movement between the psyche of the characters and the intensely realistic story allows the reader to interact with both more deeply. If you have never read Anna Karenina, make sure you do. If you have read it, go back and appreciate it again. </span>Jacob L Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08619200814391126038noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-986083927058490014.post-66515189769588174382013-08-05T23:03:00.000-07:002013-08-06T23:22:50.340-07:00Saved By Justice.<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"> </span></span><style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Courier New"; panose-1:2 7 3 9 2 2 5 2 4 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073711037 9 0 511 0;} @font-face {font-family:Wingdings; panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:2; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 268435456 0 0 -2147483648 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;} @font-face {font-family:Verdana; 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mso-level-style-link:"Note Level 9"; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in; mso-level-number-position:left; margin-left:4.25in; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:Wingdings;} ol {margin-bottom:0in;} ul {margin-bottom:0in;} --></style> </div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpFirst" style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><a href="http://zerotheabsolute.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/scales-of-justice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="http://zerotheabsolute.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/scales-of-justice.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><br />“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”<br />-- St. John</span></span><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Have you ever paused to wonder what John is saying here about our salvation when He says God is “just to forgive us”? How is this just? Don’t we deserve punishment as sinners? Isn’t it only by God’s grace that we are saved? What does this verse tell us about God?</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Many of our struggles in understanding God come because we attempt to artificially separate the attributes of God without recognizing their radical unity in Him. God’s justice and mercy (or grace) are two which we have a hard time reconciling. We do not know how God can be both just and gracious. In a way this is a great mystery to us, but we often make it more difficult than it need be. We confuse the issue even further by trying to explain God as just or merciful without recognizing that He must be both. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Some choose to ignore God’s justice in its temporal application. They do not want to interact with the judgmental side of God. They see His justice only as a future contingency of judgment if people will not choose His grace in salvation. The fear of God’s justice provides an impetus to find salvation, but that is really as far as they will go with it. They prefer to focus their time on the fact of God’s love and grace to men.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"> </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Others try to see a more complete picture of a God both just and merciful, but they end up in a similar error by splitting the attributes apart in God. They see God as just in some situations and merciful in others. Then they think they understand that He has both justice and mercy. They see God’s justice (without room for grace) only in his righteous judgment of wicked men. They also see God’s mercy (without room for His justice) only in His gracious salvation of men. In taking this view of God, they wrongly apply human limitations to God’s nature, and they limit their own understanding of God, whose justice and mercy are one. If God’s attributes are not unified in His nature, He becomes arbitrary and denies Himself as He has revealed Himself to us. To allow for disunity in God essentially annihilates Him. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">The unity of God’s attributes provides a beautiful picture of the whole which allows us to more clearly see the beauty of the parts. Essentially separating God’s attributes clouds His beauty. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span></span><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"> </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Justice, God’s justice, has saved me from God’s judgment that I deserve death. God’s justice gives me life. I use salvation as my example because it is the most radical act of grace which any man can experience. If any act of God would seem to be exclusively an act of grace rather than justice it would be salvation. In salvation, God has provided the means to and actually brought people into reconciliation and relationship with Himself complete with eternal blessings through the humble sacrifice of His own Son. Here though, God’s justice is at work with his mercy to make salvation effectual. If we can see how God’s attributes work in unity in salvation, we can gain a greater appreciation for the radical unity all God’s attributes. I do not make this claim to say that God did not save me by his grace, but rather I will demonstrate salvation from the perspective of God’s justice to see how it operates alongside God’s grace in salvation. Grace is primary, but God cannot be broken into parts, and his whole essence comes through in salvation. Grace working in terms of justice. Justice in terms of grace.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"> </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">First, we must recognize what Scripture means when it speaks of God’s justice. There is no denying that God is revealed as just. This term is used repeatedly to describe God’s nature. His actions and judgments are called just. Writers in both Testaments appeal to the justice of God in explaining important points or to make various claims. The word though that we have as “just” or “justice” in our English translations of the Bible is the same word as “righteous” or “righteousness.” This point bears emphasizing again and again. God’s justice and his righteousness are one. These two terms are one.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"> </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">God is just because He is righteous. He is righteous because He is just. We can trust wholeheartedly in the justice of God’s actions and claims because He is totally righteous. His claims cannot go awry or come from other motivations; rather, they proceed from who He is as perfectly righteous. He is righteous, that is, he is perfectly in tune with what is right. He is therefore totally just. In His justice, God punishes men for their unrighteousness. He must punish them to uphold the rule of justice that is a revelation of Himself and His righteousness. As sinners, we continually fail to abide by this rule of life, and God is just to provide the proper judgment for us.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"> </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">For salvation though, we know that God has provided the way for salvation through Christ. This way is only opened up by Christ coming to earth and living a perfectly sinless life and then dying as sacrifice so that His perfection could be counted for us. Without His living a life totally without sin, Christ’s sacrifice could not be effective for our salvation because God would not be able to accept it. Rather, God’s justice would judge the sacrifice unworthy and condemn it as unrighteous. Christ had to provide a life and sacrifice of perfect righteousness. They had to align perfectly with God’s revelation of righteousness.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"> </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Christ did this by being perfectly righteous. As the second person of he Trinity, Christ lived in this life without sin in accordance with His perfectly righteous person. This righteousness is His justice. Christ provided the perfect sacrifice by way of His justice as God. When Christ died, His perfect righteousness can then be applied to me. Christ’s righteousness becomes my own when I turn to Him in faith. It is only in Christ’s righteousness, His justice, that the way of salvation is made. Here resides my only hope.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"> </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">Lastly, salvation is only made effective for me when God looks at me and judges that I am righteous and should be taken into His family. As seen earlier, God’s justice demands that He pronounce and carry out judgments in terms of His rule of righteousness that He has revealed. God judges me, and in myself I am judged unworthy. We also saw that God graciously applies Christ’s righteousness to us though faith. It is this specific part of salvation that Paul refers to when he says we are saved by grace through faith. As far as God looks on me in salvation, He sees only Christ. In Christ, I am perfectly righteous.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"> </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">God’s justice then necessitates that He complete the act of salvation and welcome me into His family and provide to me all the benefits of salvation including everlasting life with Him. God cannot judge or act otherwise. Because of His perfect justice (or righteousness), He must judge that which is perfectly righteous, as I am in Christ, worthy of His salvation. God’s perfect justice acts in terms of His righteous rule, which I have perfectly met in Christ. For God to judge otherwise would violate his nature as righteous, it would violate justice.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"> </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">This is the source of great hope for me. If God’s justice were not at work in my salvation, that is, if God’s justice and grace were not one in His nature, then I could not be certain of my salvation. God could decide arbitrarily to judge me unworthy and cut me off despite Christ’s sacrifice and righteousness for me. On the other hand, with His justice at work in salvation, He must carry through on what His grace has begun, and I can rest assured in it.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"> </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;">When we attempt to explain salvation only with God’s grace in view, we limit God. By seeing the vital role of God’s justice in salvation, we gain a better understanding of Who God is. We can better see the unity of God and strengthen our faith in this understanding. Finally, we are provided with hope and assurance of God’s faithfulness. God is faithful and just to forgive us, as John points out. In fact, He is faithful because He is just.</span></span></div></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"> </span></span>Jacob L Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08619200814391126038noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-986083927058490014.post-53502570354869221422013-08-05T10:10:00.000-07:002013-08-05T10:10:05.246-07:00Welcome. 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mso-level-style-link:"Note Level 9"; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:4.0in; mso-level-number-position:left; margin-left:4.25in; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:Wingdings;} @list l1 {mso-list-id:1106580189; mso-list-type:hybrid; mso-list-template-ids:-1825652816 -1331282968 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715;} @list l1:level1 {mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; margin-left:.25in; text-indent:0in;} @list l1:level2 {mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in;} @list l1:level3 {mso-level-number-format:roman-lower; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:right; text-indent:-9.0pt;} @list l1:level4 {mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in;} @list l1:level5 {mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in;} @list l1:level6 {mso-level-number-format:roman-lower; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:right; text-indent:-9.0pt;} @list l1:level7 {mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in;} @list l1:level8 {mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in;} @list l1:level9 {mso-level-number-format:roman-lower; mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:right; text-indent:-9.0pt;} ol {margin-bottom:0in;} ul {margin-bottom:0in;} --></style><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpFirst" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>“Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.”</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>-- Jesus Christ</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle"><br /></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Hello all. Welcome to “Under Darkening Skies”. This is my new (and first) blog. I am glad you have found it, and I hope you will have cause to return often. I have long anticipated beginning a blog, but I never found the appropriate motivation to do so until now. </span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle"><br /></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>The reasons that I have chosen to begin this blog are really five:</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>1.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></span><span>As a challenge to myself to put my ideas and reflections out for the critique of others</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>2.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></span><span>As a challenge to develop my ideas and reflections more fully by forcing myself to express them clearly</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>3.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></span><span>As a way of blessing all those whom I can influence through it</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>4.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></span><span>As a challenge to you to think through these things that I find important more clearly and thoughtfully to see how they might affect your life</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>5.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></span><span>As a learning experience whereby I mature in my thought and actions through interaction with you all.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle"><br /></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Please feel free to look around. I will also be posting on here quite regularly. You will soon find out (if you do not already know it) that I have a variety of interests, but hopefully the variety will enable us to paint a more complete picture in our thoughts by relating them to each other. These topics will often include, but not be limited to, thoughts on ethics, theology, politics, and current events; book reviews of my favorite reads (or whatever I have most recently finished); reflections on movies and culture; and archives from papers I have written in the past.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Needless to say I am very excited by this new challenge and opportunity. Please leave comments and I will respond when I can. Also, if there is a topic you would like me to reflect on, suggest it, and it may become a post in the future.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle"><br /></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Eyeing the storms with delight,</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpMiddle"><br /></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><div class="MsoNoteLevel1CxSpLast"><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Jacob L Barrett</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span>Jacob L Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08619200814391126038noreply@blogger.com0